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Fake Nintendo NX video leak

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People really, really like to create fake video game leaks. It's bizarre, but it's the truth – there are apparently lots of folks out there with lots of extra time to try and fool the millions of rabid game fans worldwide. Imagine our surprise when the video above popped up overnight, purporting to be a "leak" of Nintendo's next game console.

That surprise, however, quickly turned to laughter: this is an obvious fake, despite bearing some marks of reality.

YouTube user "hyberes56" uploaded the video, titled "Nintendo Cross (NX) hardware concept reveal" at some point on June 30. It had just over 25,000 views on YouTube as of Wednesday morning, and carried this description:

Behind closed doors Satoru Iwata and Genyo Takeda gave us an update about Nintendo's next home console Nintendo Cross. Note that this is not the trailer Nintendo will show next year, instead it is being used for partners and publishers. The console itself is just an early prototype, they are still working on the specific hardware details.

Sounds legit, right? The first two gentlemen mentioned – Satoru Iwata and Genyo Takeda – are the president of Nintendo and the general hardware manager of Nintendo, respectively. So far, so good!

The description says this video is being shown to "partners and publishers," which is where we get our first clue that this is fake. Nintendo's next console – currently codenamed "NX" – is almost certainly being shown to partners and publishers, but not in such a finished way. The way console makers like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft show off their next console to other companies is through technical specs. 

Think about it like this: if you're a company betting on Nintendo's next hardware, you need to know how to develop for it – not what the controller looks like, or how it'll supposedly work with previous hardware, or whatever else. Those are marketing bullet points for consumers, not the stuff that publishers and partners need to know.

The second clue we have is the video itself being rife with errors. 

The very first feature showcased of "Nintendo Cross" is its ability to stream games to your tablet, with virtual buttons acting as a gamepad. 

Nintendo Cross (fake)
An image from the YouTube user's fake Nintendo leak. YouTube

Nintendo has, over and over and over, said it won't make its games available directly on tablets. Yes, Nintendo is moving some of its properties to mobile devices (including tablets), but not the same games you find on Nintendo's game consoles. The company specifically partnered with Japanese mobile giant DeNA to create new games based on its franchise roster. 

The video goes on to say that the prime function of "Cross" will be to stream games across the Nintendo's variety of platforms: Wii U, 3DS, and now mobile. While Nintendo has technology capable of streaming (the Wii U's gamepad uses streaming technology), the company's never focused on streaming as the future of game consoles.

More importantly, Nintendo's never focused on technology in any of its products that doesn't intend to innovate. Given that streaming is already possible, on a consumer level, on a variety of platforms, it seems incredibly unlikely this would be a prime function of Nintendo's next console (expected to arrive in 2017). 

The final, glaring mistake is the gamepad. It looks like this in the video:

"Nintendo Cross" (fake)
The Photoshop image of a Wii U Pro Controller. YouTube

That's just the Wii U "Pro Controller" with some poor Photoshop work done. Here's the Wii U Pro Controller:

Nintendo Wii U Pro Controller
The actual Wii U Pro Controller. Nintendo

As always, don't believe everything you see on the the internet.

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